Video Breakdown: How the Tampa 2 defense saved the Colts’ season

The Indianapolis Colts survived yet another hard-fought divisional game against the Houston Texans this weekend as they prevailed 27-20 on a last-second forced fumble by Darius Leonard. While that may have been the play of the game that turned this potential loss into a victory, I wanted to highlight another play that resulted in the win for the Colts.

Late in the fourth quarter on the Colts’ final offensive drive, Philip Rivers and T.Y. Hilton connected on a 41-yard pass that led to the game-winning touchdown to Zach Pascal just two plays later.

The ironic part about this big play is that it came against the Texans when they were running a Tampa 2 defense, a coverage that was made famous by former Colts coach Tony Dungy and a type of defense that heavily influenced the scheme of current Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus.

So today I put together a little video breaking down this play and why Hilton was able to get so wide open down the middle of the field. This coverage, and the Tampa 2 defense, essentially saved the Colts season for the time being: